Why Every Round 1 Fantasy football Pick Will SUCK in 2026

It is August, which means it is time to talk ourselves out of every player
we are about to draft. Ian Hartitz goes one by one through all 12 first
round picks, builds the glass half empty case against each of them, and
then gives an honest 1 to 10 rating on how much that risk actually scares
him.

Some of these are easy to dismiss. Ja'Marr Chase only breaks if Joe Burrow
gets hurt again, and every receiver has that problem. Others are real. The
bottom of the round is where it gets ugly, because Justin Jefferson and
De'Von Achane are both tied to offenses nobody wants to bet on, and there
are only 14 instances of a running back posting top-12 PPR numbers on a
bottom-10 scoring offense over the entire last decade.

The full concern list, lowest to highest:

1/10 Jahmyr Gibbs (1.01)
1/10 Ja'Marr Chase (1.03)
2/10 Bijan Robinson (1.02)
2/10 Puka Nacua (1.04)
3/10 Jaxon Smith-Njigba (1.06)
3/10 Amon-Ra St. Brown (1.08)
4/10 Christian McCaffrey (1.05)
4/10 James Cook (1.11)
5/10 CeeDee Lamb (1.09)
6/10 Jonathan Taylor (1.07)
7/10 Justin Jefferson (1.10)
8/10 De'Von Achane (1.12)

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Timestamps:
0:00 The premise: talking ourselves out of the first round
0:39 1.01 Jahmyr Gibbs (1/10)
3:45 1.02 Bijan Robinson (2/10)
6:56 1.03 Ja'Marr Chase (1/10)
8:25 1.04 Puka Nacua (2/10)
12:27 1.05 Christian McCaffrey (4/10)
16:15 1.06 Jaxon Smith-Njigba (3/10)
19:29 1.07 Jonathan Taylor (6/10)
25:45 1.08 Amon-Ra St. Brown (3/10)
28:02 1.09 CeeDee Lamb (5/10)
30:53 1.10 Justin Jefferson (7/10)
35:56 1.11 James Cook (4/10)
38:38 1.12 De'Von Achane (8/10)
41:33 Every concern level, recapped

It's a great day to be great.